Monday, 22 October 2012

It's been a while since I posted an update on our beach villa project. That doesn't mean that nothing is happening, rather we are working through a few things like choosing architects, putting in roads & electricity, and sub-dividing land. Riveting reading for future posts.

This time I thought I'd share a few of the pics from our June visit when we went diving. Michael and I are new to diving. We only completed our PADI Open Water certificates late last year. When we did our training it was in Sydney and just a little bit too cold for me. I did enjoy it - but not as much as I'd hoped as I'm a Queensland girl and just don't cope being cold at all. While we were up visiting the site of our future villa we decided to take advantage of the warmer water and get some practice in. We even upskilled and completed our PADI Advanced Open Water certificate. I must admit I enjoyed diving a lot more in warmer waters. I was more relaxed, ready to have fun, and much more willing to try out new skills. Our instructors were great and overall it was a wonderful experience. We had so much fun we even went back and did a few extra dives while we were there.

I'm really looking forward to having more time in Nilaveli when the villa is complete so we can continue to dive and explore the world from a different vantage point. Hopefully we'll be able to convince some of our friends to join us in our new hobby too.

Saturday, 2 June 2012

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and today we've taken those first baby steps. After a very long flight to Colombo we've started meeting with architects, designers and industry experts to learn and to evaluate our ideas and to try and put some framework around the dream we have in our heads and our hearts.

It's been a huge learning curve. We've learnt about archaic laws, the cost of materials, novel approaches to architecture and more. What has amazed us the most is how willing people are to spend time with us, talking to us, offering us advice and suggestions, and in every case sharing with us the wisdom they have gained from experience. We've had Chief Operating Officers of very large companies willingly give us time and suggestions, and encourage us to pursue our dream, while giving us practical advice and tips to follow. Meeting after meeting we've been blown away by the support and generosity of people we've never met to share with us, and to encourage us in our dreams.

Now the challenge begins to make a decision and to move forward. But more on that tomorrow.